Autumn has arrived!
by Staye
Summary: "Autumn is so boring!" thought Dendritic Cell. On a boring day, he finds the perfect victim, I mean, person to have a chat with: The naive AE-3803. Despite his mischievious nature, Mr. Dendrite will try to help AE-3803 to be more honest with her own feelings towards U-1146; by showing her a glimpse of the neutrophil's embarrassing past.


As autumn arrived, leaves covered the veins. There, like always, millions of red blood cells traveled each day through the same roads. Along one of those roads, a small post was being diligently cleaned by a young dendrite. With a smile, he swept the dust and the recent leaves that had fallen into his post during the night before. It was truly a peaceful day. He hadn't had to make any call, and not a lot of blood cells have passed through his post.

" _Why is this day so boring. No one to even talk to, no one to even bother."_ Thought Dendrite, as he absentmindedly kept sweeping away the leaves. Finally, a phone rang. He almost trip with the broom as he dashed to picked it up, answering with a bright and warm "Hello?"

But his flame of passion and eagerness was quickly put off by the fact that it was just Ms. Macrophage, reporting that they had finished cleaning up a virus in the liver. "Oh, roger that, Ms Macrophage. I will report it to the commander right away." He replied, ending the call soon after.

After reporting the boring message to the boring HQ, Dendrite sat on his post. With a big sigh, he took out his collection of cytokines, flipping through all the pictures he had from all of his friends. Chuckling at some of them, he greeted any passerby. Minutes and hours went by, and Dendrite entertained himself looking at all those frozen moments from the past. It was guilty pleasure of his.

Those cytokines were his most valuable possession, not only as an immense repository of the history of the cells he had been friends with, but also they were used to motivate said friends to give all of their potential while fighting evil pathogens.

He stopped at one particular picture. " _Oh my! I forgot about this gem, I wonder where they are now"_ He took his eyes off his little treasure after he heard a recognizable voice, despite belonging to one of his most recent friends. "Sorry to bother you Mr. Dendrite. But can you tell me if this is the right way to the lungs. I'm kind of lost again."

" _Speak of the devil…"_ Dendrite thought as he smiled, before closing the cytokines' album and replying. "Oh, you are U-1146's little, red friend right? Yeah, this is the way to the lungs. You just have to follow the signs and you'll be there in no time."

AE-3803 was smiling from ear to ear due to the relief of not being as lost as she initially thought. "Thanks for the help Mr Dendrite. I'll deliver this Co2 right away, thanks to you." She was already turning the cart carrying her box, when she heard Dendrite's voice again.

"Ah, I'm always happy to help a friend. I'll tell you what." He grinned. "Come back here when you've finished your deliveries. I'll have a surprise for you. I'm sure you'll very much enjoy it. Oh! And please, try to come alone, this will be our own little secret, okay?" The naive Red Blood Cell agreed to his proposal, and promised to return. Dendrite smiled as he watched her go along the veins, thinking. " _Finally, my day might not end up being so boring after all."_

More boring hours passed by Dendrite's post, until he finally heard the sweet and cheerful voice of AE-3803 as she came up to him. "Gah…" She stretched out her arms. "Finally done with today's work. I've been wondering all day for what that surprise will be" Dendrite smiled as he replied. "Thanks for your hard work. Come over and I'll show you." He opened the door to his post, and put up a stool right by his own, so Red Blood Cell could sit.

"Let me find it, okay?" Dendrite said as he looked through his records. "U, U… 1… here we go." He picked up a folder and came back to his stool, still hiding it from AE-3803. He gently put it over the small counter on his post and asked. "Are you sure you want to see this? If so you'll have to answer me some things."

"Sure, What do you want to know, Mr. Dendrite?" Answered innocently the red blood cell, to which Dendrite replied. "You look quite close to U-1146, I do remember you from when he was a kid. He's been taking care of you ever since, right?"

"Yeah, more or less. I always seem to bump into him one way or another."

"I see, it must be destiny that binds you together."

"Bind? I wouldn't go that far, Mr Dendrite. W-We're just friends." AE-3803 blushed ever so slightly.

"What? But you always look so happy with him around. I'm sorry, I misunderstood that. But anyway, here's my surprise, and my gift to you." He offered the folder with the label "U-1146" printed on it. "Look here and pick one you like the most, then I'll give that one to you." He, gently, smiled.

The folder, as expected, contained pictures of U-1146. It included everything, since he was a kid, to the present day.. Red Blood Cell blushed immediately, and looked away. "I-I-I cannot look at these! T-These are personal!" She struggled through her words as Dendrite giggled. " _I knew it, This is adorable."_

"Come on, AE-chan, don't disrespect my gift like that. Look at this one for example." He picked one of the pictures and showed it to AE-3803. "You appear in this, it's from way back when you were just childhood friends." As he said, the pictured he handed over depicted AE-3803, shyly hiding behind U-1146, who was barely smiling, just as expressionless as today. "Look at how cute you look together, if you look in the folder, there are more." He smiled, once again.

AE-3803 couldn't resist the temptation laid down by Mr Dendrite and, reluctantly at first, flipped through the pages in silence. Not a lot featured both of them. Instead, most were just of U-1146. AE-3803 slowly started to get immersed in those moments frozen in time, letting out some quiet chuckles, especially at the more embarrassing ones. She took her time examining them one by one, almost losing her sense of time entirely as her face gave out a peaceful expression.

Only Dendrite's voice took her back from her little trance. "Remember that you can pick one for yourself, so choose wisely!" AE-3803 thought for a bit. "Is this really okay?" To which Dendrite replied. "I have hundreds, I won't miss one or two. This is a gift, but only if you promise to be more honest with yourself, okay?" AE-3803 payed attention to him as she flipped through the pages.

After some minutes of silence, as the red blood cell looked through the collection, she finally found what she thought would be a good one to keep for herself. It depicted both of them as teenagers. AE-3803 was in the foreground, looking as cheerful as ever while dancing along with U-1146, who looked the happiest she had seen him. This was the main reason she chose this picture over the others.

"Have you made your choice?" Asked Dendrite seeing her with that picture on her hands.

"Yep! I really like this one- I don't remember when it was taken though., but it doesn't really matter."

"Okay, it's yours. But first, you didn't replied if you were ok with my condition for the gift."

"Condition, what condition?" AE-3803 asked, genuinely not remembering.

"Promise me you'll be more honest with yourself." He said gently.

"I don't really get what you mean…" She blushing slightly.

"I think you do, you little dork." He booped her softly in her forehead as he said. "It's yours."

"T-Thanks…" She said blushing a bit darker and pocketing the picture on her bag.

"Before you go, did you check the last page, by the way?"

"The last page? Not really, wh…" She interrupted herself with a scream as she flipped to the end of the collection. "When did you take this?! Give it to me!" She reached with her fingers to grab the picture. But she was too slow, as Dendrite took the it away before she could do it.

Dendrite grinned mischievously. "You made your choice, a deal is a deal!" And chuckled before saying. "Don't worry, you looked cute, and so did he, right?" AE-3803 was as red as her outfit, and didn't answer. "It's okay AE-3803, I won't show it to anyone. Your secret is completely safe with me." Dendrite said before chuckling again, stopping after he looked outside his post. "Oh my... "

He put the collection away, right before U-1146 came to the post. He heard AE-3803's scream, and was worried. But seeing her safe and sound calmed his nerves. "Hello Mr. Dendrite. Hey AE" The erythrocyte was still too embarrassed to even speak. Instead, she stood up and, just like the picture from when their childhood, shyly stood behind U-1146, tugging his sleeve softly.

"Your friend, actually, was waiting for you, U-1146. She's quite the good friend, isn't she?" The neutrophil had a confused look, but nodded and led the Red Blood Cell outside the post. "Yeah, she is." He said as he turned to AE-3803. "Do you want to eat something?" To which she just nodded again and followed him, still hiding slightly behind him and grabbing him by his sleeve.

As the two of them quickly disappear in the crowd, Dendrite looked at them holding the picture that made AE-3803 so embarrassed. It was the 2 of them, laying on a couch from one of the platelets waiting area. AE-3803 was sleeping peacefully on U-1146's arms as he softly caressed her face. " _Autumn might turn out to be interesting after all"_

 **Afterword:**

Hey! Once again thanks for the feedback on my other 2 works. It has make me quite happy to see people like what I do. It's always hard to start new things, but thanks to the positive feedback that I have received, I am not as anxious as I was when I published my first 2 words. I actually got this idea from a discussion with a friend of discord regarding my past stories. If you are curious, and haven't read my previous work, the situation from the last picture of RBC and WBC (At the couch) comes from my other story "Waiting Area C" So feel free to check it out if you haven't! Nothing else to add. And thanks for taking the time reading this! :D


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